I've been constructing my website for sometime using the space provided by my isp, Pipex. What I'd like to know is where people having been getting their domain names from? Does anyone have any recommendations? Ideally I'd like to link the domain name I want to my allocated Pipex webspace.

Generally if you want the domain to take you to your site, you should register it with your ISP and they'll point it at the space, they're the only people who can configure the sever to do so.

However, you can do domain redirecting, so that people type in the domain and are invisibly taken to your site without interference by the ISP or server. You can't link directly to a page (yourdomain.com/page.html wont work, only by typing in yourdomain.com can you get directly redirected to your webspace) but it is a cheap way of having a domain point to your site without going for more expensive hosting packages.

Try http://lowcosthosts.co.uk. It cost me £17.50 for the .com domain name registration for 1 year and 1 years hosting with unlimited disc space and pop3 emails, and many other features. Their support is excellent good too. Try their site for more info.

Be careful who you use, I was checking to see if a domain name that I was after was free and it was, great!!. However I made the mistake of not getting it there and then, so the site I was searching thru registered the name and I lost it. Grrrrrr.

So I now use www.a-q.co.uk who do not keep an eye on the searches and then register them behind your back.

I am thinking of signing up for a domain name and a basic hosting with 123-reg.com. Please any info on their service.

I have visited their site but I'm confused as to the charges they have for hosting, on one page it says £2.99 +vat per month payable yearly for a 250 webspace + set up fee but then when I went to FAQ section it says at the bottom it start at £9.99 per month.

Any advice. Also I will be looking to upload my readily designed website to their webspace, do they have a file manager where you can upload your files/images and edit at the same time while online without having to FTP? bit like the Geocities/Yahoo webspace, very easy to use.

Looking at it i think the basic is 2.99 a month and extra is 9.99 a month. Looking at the hosting plan it is not very good with very few features very basic.

Look at DesignR Basic Hosting Link. This will work out cheaper and to be honest is a much better package, for that price range..

When it comes to uploading if you need any help please let me know and ill see what i can do for you ... I very much doubt your be able to edit a pre-designed site as they will use very complex scripting you will need to do this ofline, again if i can help let me know.

I highly recommend you stay away from uk2! I've had all sorts of headaches with them - if you want to move your domain name away from them, or update any of the details on it, they charge a bomb then make you jump through hoops to get anything done (send a fax to a specific number, use an online form to tell them what time the fax was sent, wait and see if it gets dealt with, if not start from scratch).
There are many ISPs who give a much better service for the same price, plus you get human contact too.